Well-Armed Design: 8 Octopus-Inspired Technologies

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The octopus has inspired much technological innovation, and with
good reason. This cephalopod is dexterous underwater, can
camouflage itself, has well-developed vision, muscular arms,
sensory suction cups and a soft body.

"The
octopus is a fascinating animal, very special indeed, given
its muscular structure that works like a modifiable skeleton,"
said Cecilia Laschi, a biorobotics professor at the Sant'Anna
School of Advanced Studies in Pisa, Italy.

Here are some novel technologies that researchers, like Laschi
herself, have created based on the sea creature:

Camouflage material

Octopuses have specialized cells that allow the animals to change
the color and pattern of their skin, effectively
camouflaging themselves from predators. A team of researchers
led by Cunjiang Yu, an assistant professor of engineering at the
University of Houston, and John Rogers, a professor of materials
science and engineering at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign, developed their own version of that camouflage.

The team's
flexible camouflage system contains layers of heat-sensitive
dye and light sensors. "We were part of an interdisciplinary team
of researchers funded by the Office of Naval Research to look
into the engineering science of how to reproduce the
color-changing capabilities of cephalopods in manmade systems,"
Rogers told Live Science.

Last year, scientists from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, the
Edgewood Chemical Biological Center and the University of
Maryland created 3D-printed self-sealing
suction cups. These devices could help robots grasp objects,
particularly in disaster relief environments that are too
dangerous for humans to enter.

The researchers tested four fingertip-size prototype suction cups
made from a type of polymer that solidifies under UV light.
Results showed that the cups were strong enough to hold up a wine
bottle,
according to the U.S. Army Research Lab.

Color-changing robot

Harvard University scientists led by chemist George Whitesides
created a
soft, color-changing robot two years ago that was inspired by
octopuses and squid.

The four-limbed robot has a separate layer of tiny channels
through which liquid dyes can be pumped in and out. The color of
the dyes can be combined to help the robot blend into its
surroundings.

More recently, the team developed a new soft robot. While this
one doesn’t change color, it has the same shape as the original
and can move around autonomously. Made from silicone, hollow
glass microspheres and specialized synthetic fabric, it is
resilient enough to withstand flames, water and being run over by
a car. The new journal Soft Robotics featured the robot design
in the publication's first issue.

Swimming

Last year, scientists from the Foundation for Research and
Technology – Hellas in Greece tested an eight-armed robot
prototype underwater. The machine not only looked like an
octopus, but also mimicked that creature's movements. [ Super-Intelligent
Machines: 7 Robotic Futures ]

The project's goal is to investigate new types of propulsion to
make it easier and more efficient for robots to transport heavy
loads underwater.

Experiments inside a water tank with the eight-arm robotic
prototype successfully demonstrated an oar-like motion called
sculling, and attained a speed of 0.2 body lengths per second
according to
the researchers' paper for the 2013 IEEE International
Conference on Robotics and Automation.

The octopus's highly distributed body control prompted
researchers from the University of Zurich, in Switzerland, and
Kyoto University, in Japan, to create and study a sensor-laden
silicone arm. The sensors detect the arm’s position as it
rotates, allowing the researchers to track and analyze the
dynamics at play.

Nonrigid materials are typically difficult to control, so the
scientists hope their calculations will lead to more-intelligent
soft-robot interfaces.

"Many living things have very soft bodies, and the octopus serves
as the extreme case," said Kohei Nakajima, an assistant professor
at Kyoto University in the Hakubi Center for Advanced Research,
who is working on the arm. "This is why many researchers,
especially from bioinspired robotics, are interested in it."

Wearable robotic arms

A recent prototype for wearable robotic arms may resemble the
Spider Man supervillain Doctor Octopus but the device, created by
a team from MIT’s d'Arbeloff Laboratory, was created with good
intentions.

Giving people extra arms could one day help prevent injury for
workers who perform repetitive, difficult tasks. The lab's
conceptual images show these "supernumerary robotic limbs," or
SRLs, mounted either on the shoulders or at the waist. In tests
this summer, a shoulder-mounted prototype demonstrated how the
arms can mimic the wearer's actual arm movements.

Marine operations

The PoseiDRONE is a spinoff from the European Octopus Integrating
Project, which worked on novel design principles and tech for
next-generation soft
robots based on the behavior and characteristics of
octopuses.

Cecilia Laschi and her colleagues are working to build a new
robot made from up to 90 percent soft materials that can survive
rough underwater conditions while doing risky work. The goal is
for the PoseiDRONE robot to swim, crawl and manipulate tools
underwater.

In the future, soft robots like this could perform such tasks as
underwater maintenance on offshore wind turbines, or they could
assist with oil-drilling operations. An updated prototype is
being tested now.

Soft endoscope

Another European Octopus Project spinoff that Laschi and her team
started is the STIFF-FLOP
project focused on cognitive systems and robotics for
surgical operations. The project aims to create a soft, flexible
endoscope for minimally invasive surgery. So far, the design is
drawing inspiration from elephant trunks and octopus arms.

Laschi said her lab used to keep live octopuses for measurements
and observation to inform the endoscope and other projects. This
helped the researchers better get to know the animals. "They are
unexpectedly interactive with human beings," she said.
"Impressively, all our animals showed pretty different behaviors
and attitudes, one from another."